One of the most significant occurrences of this century has been the drastic decline in many countries of tragically high death and birth rates. In this collection, leading demographers, anthropologists, sociologists, and historians examine the causes of this transition and the reasons why many other countries have not followed suit.

If America worships success, then why has the nation's literature dwelled obsessively on failure? This book explores encounters with failure by nineteenth-century writers ranging from Edgar Allan Poe and Herman Melville to Mark Twain and Sarah Orne Jewett whose celebrated works more often struck readers as profoundly messy, flawed, and even perverse. Reading textual inconsistency against the backdrop of a turbulent nineteenth century, Gavin Jones describes how the difficulties these writers faced in their faltering search for new styles, coherent characters, and satisfactory endings uncovered...

If America worships success, then why has the nation's literature dwelled obsessively on failure? This book explores encounters with failure by nineteenth-century writers ranging from Edgar Allan Poe and Herman Melville to Mark Twain and Sarah Orne Jewett whose celebrated works more often struck readers as profoundly messy, flawed, and even perverse. Reading textual inconsistency against the backdrop of a turbulent nineteenth century, Gavin Jones describes how the difficulties these writers faced in their faltering search for new styles, coherent characters, and satisfactory endings uncovered...